CHAPTER 1 ORIGINS AND DEVELOPMENT OF MESOAMERICAN CIVILIZATION 65the ultimate demise of the center, and we know the names of many of the rulers and
some important events in their lives.
By the Late Formative period, Tikal was already developing into an important
regional center. Following the involvement of Teotihuacan in founding a new dy-
nasty, Tikal emerged as the dominant center of the Early Classic Period central low-
lands. Hieroglyphic texts record the arrival of a military ambassador, Siyaj K’ak, at
Tikal on January 31, 378, on the same day that the prior king, Chak Tok Ich’aak
died; epigraphers view this as no coincidence. King Yax Nuun Ayiin I, installed by
Siyaj K’ak over a year later, is the named descendant of a mysterious figure,
Spearthrower Owl, who may have been the ruler of Teotihuacan. Texts declare that
this boy king was overseen by Siyaj K’ak. Yax Nuun Ayiin was depicted in Teotihua-
can attire, and his grave offerings included vessels with painted Teotihuacan mytho-
logical figures. Despite Teotihuacan’s likely intervention with the Tikal line, local
Mayan lineages allied with the new dynasty prospered from this circumstance. Yax
Nuun Ayiin’s son, Siyaj Chan K’awiil II, depicted himself in traditional Mayan cos-
tume in the splendid Stela 31, which also pays homage to Spearthrower Owl and por-
trays his father as a Teotihuacano. The Tikal nobility assimilated Teotihuacan
elements and made them an important part of their founding mythology, and pow-
erful local families likely married into this dynasty. Claiming foreign descent is a
common cross-cultural strategy in ancient complex societies, and fusing exotic de-
scent lines with powerful local ones draws upon two funds of social power that serve
to legitimize aspiring rulers.
Figure 1.11 The central portion of the Classic-period Mayan city of Tikal, Guatemala.
Courtesy of The University Museum, University of Pennsylvania.